The Daily Sandwich

"We have to learn the lesson that intellectual honesty is fundamental for everything we cherish." -Sir Karl Popper

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Location: Boston, Massachusetts, United States

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Wednesday, November 02, 2005

Americans don't want an anti-choice justice

The story from the Bill O'Reillys out there is that most Americans want Roe overturned. In fact, a significant majority think Alito should not be confirmed if he thinks Roe should be overturned.

  • If it becomes clear Alito would vote to reverse Roe v. Wade, Americans would not want the Senate to confirm him, by 53% to 37%.

  • If most Senate Democrats oppose the nomination and decide to filibuster against Alito, 50% of Americans believe they would be justified, while 40% say they would not.
. . . Similar patterns are found on the filibuster questions. Independents, Democrats, moderates, and liberals all favor the Democrats' use of the filibuster and oppose any Senate effort to eliminate the tactic for judicial nominations, while both conservatives and Republicans take the opposite positions.

Now guess how many Republicans and conservatives would root for the nuclear option if we were dealing with a moderate or progressive judge in a Democratically controlled Senate. Methinks they'd be referring to it as a gross abuse of power.